The use of mobile communications devices has increased rapidly over the past decades. These devices are including ever more powerful processors and increasing amounts of memory, while at the same time getting smaller and more power efficient. Even so, managing power consumption is a significant challenge on mobile devices. As new hardware and software features are added, designers must carefully consider power consumption ramifications.
As mobile devices have advanced, so have the networks with which they connect. Modern digital cellular networks for carrying voice data are well-established, and these networks are increasingly being expanded to handle packet switched data for allowing access to the Internet and other networks. Mobile devices are also often capable of accessing non-cellular networks such as 802.11 wireless, or “WiFi™.” These capabilities enable mobile devices to
Mobile devices may also be capable of receiving data from other types of networks, such as broadcast networks. These broadcast networks may include analog and digital TV and radio, as well as sub-bands of these networks used for sending data traffic. For example, the Radio Data System (RDS) is a European Broadcasting Union standard for sending (typically small amounts of) digital information using analog Frequency Modulation (FM) radio broadcasts. Stations can use RDS for broadcasting such data as clock time, station identifiers, program type, information describing currently playing content, etc. Similar systems for sending digital data associated with radio broadcasts include Amplitude Modulation Signaling System (AMSS), DirectBand™, Program Associated Data (PAD), Subsidiary Communications Authority (SCA), Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operations (SCMO), etc. Other broadcast technologies, such as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), HD Radio, etc., were designed from the outset to include the ability for broadcasters to insert digital data associated with content broadcasts.
Although consumers will continue to want two-way, packet-switched networking capabilities in mobile devices, these broadcasting technologies can also be advantageously exploited in mobile devices. One advantage of these technologies is that they are often free, offer high-bandwidth and quality signals, and do not require the mobile device to transmit. Therefore, even if a user could stream Internet radio from a device, they might prefer to listen to a broadcast station if it has higher quality sound and allows them to listen for a longer amount of time (e.g., more power efficient). Nonetheless, even broadcast receiving circuitry draws some amount of power, and finding ways of more efficiently receiving broadcast data on a mobile device is desirable.